Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously strikes down charter school funding law

The 🐴Kentucky Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling on February 19, 2026, striking down House Bill 9 — the 2022 law that would have allowed publicly funded charter schools to open in Kentucky. All seven justices joined JMJustice Michelle Keller's opinion, which found that charter schools as structured under HB 9 fall outside the Kentucky Constitution's definition of 'common schools,' the only type of school that may receive public education funds.

Three sections of the 🐴Kentucky Constitution form the legal basis for the ruling. Section 183 requires the General Assembly to provide an 'efficient system of common schools.' Section 184 defines what the common school fund consists of and how it may be used. Section 186 states that all funds accruing to the school fund 'shall be used for the maintenance of the public schools of the Commonwealth, and for no other purpose.' The court found charter schools don't meet the 'common school' definition because they can cap enrollment, use lotteries, and operate independently of elected local school boards.

The 🐴Kentucky constitutional standard for 'common schools' has deep roots. In 1989, the Kentucky Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Rose v. CFCouncil for Better Education declared the entire Kentucky education system unconstitutional under that same 'efficient system of common schools' standard, forcing the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act — one of the most comprehensive state education overhauls in U.S. history. The current ruling builds on that tradition of the courts enforcing strict constitutional standards on education funding.

House Bill 9 had a multi-step legal history before this ruling. Governor Andy Beshear vetoed it in 2022, calling it unconstitutional. Republican legislators overrode the veto 52-46 in the House and 22-15 in the Senate using their supermajority. The law was challenged by the CFCouncil for Better Education (representing 168 school districts) and first struck down by Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd in December 2023. The 🐴Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed that ruling on February 19, 2026.

🐴Kentucky voters had already expressed their view through the ballot. In November 2024, voters rejected Constitutional Amendment 2 — which would have allowed the General Assembly to fund students outside the common school system — by 65 percent statewide, with majorities voting against it in all 120 counties. The margin of defeat made any near-term constitutional amendment path politically difficult. A constitutional amendment in Kentucky requires approval by three-fifths of both legislative chambers and then a majority of voters at a general election.

The ruling places 🐴Kentucky among the few states where charter schools are effectively prohibited at the constitutional level. As of 2026, 45 states have operational charter schools. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools called the decision 'the most poorly reasoned legal opinion in the 35 years of the charter school movement.' Attorney General RCRussell Coleman, who had defended HB 9, called the ruling 'a sad day for Kentucky's children.' The Kentucky Education Association said voters and courts had 'put the issue to bed' and called on lawmakers to 'invest in our public schools.'

The Bluegrass Institute, a conservative 🐴Kentucky think tank, raised a procedural counter-argument: it noted that the legislature routinely funds other educational programs — the Kentucky Schools for the Blind and Deaf, the Governor's Scholars Program, the Governor's School for the Arts — through General Fund appropriations, even though those programs aren't 'common schools' by the court's definition. Critics argue the ruling creates an inconsistency. The court's majority did not directly address these programs in the February 19 opinion.

One concrete impact: the ruling 'imperils some of the state's highest-performing public schools and specialty schools,' according to the National Alliance. Specialty schools including magnet schools that use selective enrollment, caps, or lottery admission could face constitutional scrutiny under the ruling's logic, though they are managed by elected school boards — the key distinction the court drew. Jefferson County Public Schools already operates specialty programs like duPont Manual High School under its elected board control.